Lehigh County Collaborative

Contact Information

Meranda Hess, AE Program Specialist, merandahess@lehighcounty.org

Website/Social Media

Lehigh County Family Supports on Facebook

Like our Facebook page for updates on local and virtual resources and events!

Communication and Meeting Structures

Meetings are currently held quarterly via Zoom.  We also have a planning sub-committee (currently working on planning a virtual training series for parents/families/self-advocates that is meeting monthly or more frequently as needed.  Please email Meranda at MerandaHess@lehighcounty.org if you are interested in joining either the general meeting or the planning sub-committee.

Goals, next steps or actions plans

We have identified a local need of families of transition-aged students and young adults not knowing what is available in the “adult system” and not knowing how to access supports that are available.  Based on this need, we are planning a virtual training series targeted at families and self-advocates in different age groups to help fill their information bucket.  We are early in the planning stages, but hope to begin the series in May, 2021.

AE/SCO/Provider/DHS/Broad Community Partners Represented within Collaborative:

Lehigh County AE, SAM Inc SCO, Quality Progressions SCO, ARC of Lehigh and Northampton Counties have previously been involved and will remain involved.  Newcomers include HCQU, Keystone Human Services, Allentown School District, CLIU #21, Merakey, LVCIL, Local Task Force 21, Corazones Unidos para el Autismo, Autism Society Lehigh Valley, and several family representatives.